Report from Nickelsdorf / Hegyeshalom 16. September 2015

On the 16th of September, only the dozens of policewomen and -men, several supporters and a plethora of empty tents reminded visitors of what happened here, on the border between Austria and Hungary, in the area of Nickelsdorf/Hegyeshalom, just a few days ago.

The area beneath the former "Flugdach" was empty except for a bunch of policepeople and several supporters from the Red Cross, who were already packing. The situation at the Nova-Rock hall was no different. Only at the train station of Nickelsdorf, the last refugees were waiting for the special train which left at around 3 o’clock in direction of Vienna, according to the police.

Private supporters, forces of the Red Cross and some policewomen and -men stated unanimously, that this was it for the time being. The routes are to relocate to the south of the Burgenland and to Carinthia. This also corresponds with the media reports (:: derstandard.at).

The border is closed, a policeman states, who quickly corrects himself to saying that, together with the army, individual, selective controls are taking place, which also lead to a traffic jam. On the Hungarian side, in Hegyeshalom, no more people are supposed to be on their way to Austria, respectively Germany. The border from Hungary to Serbia has recently been closed completely, which leads to resistance and brutal clashes with the Hungarian police forces (urlext http://derstandard.at/2000022327558]derstandard.at[/urlext], :: orf.at).

Not much evidence of the massive police operation is to be seen just a couple of kilometres south of Nickelsdorf, although several "routine controls", which are not supposed to be "border controls" (roughly translated from the Hungarian policepeople), are taking place. It is apparent that here too, freedom of movement is restricted to a selected group of people and others are being intercepted before they are able to cross the border.

Thus, it is of not much use to support at the border crossing of Nickelsdorf/Hegyeshalom. Support of freedom fighters is absolutely necessary at the Hungarian/Serbian border and might also be needed at the Austrian/German border, where hundreds were marching to Freilassing today. (:: salzburg.orf.at).